transcription, транскрипция: [ ̈ɪlaɪt ]
adjective Often written lite in brand names (Lifestyle and Leisure) Of foods and drinks: containing few calories; especially, low in fat or cholesterol. Etymology: A specialization of sense arising almost entirely from the use of the word in advertising and brand names; the current use when applied to food and drink deliberately combines elements of a number of well-established senses. On the one hand, it is the food that is being described as light (in the same sense as one might speak of a light meal, or think of lager as light compared with bitter); on the other, it is the effect on the consumer that is at issue (implying that light foods and drinks will not make you fat and heavy). Light has been used of drinks (especially beer), as in light ale, to mean 'not strong' since the late nineteenth century (and in this sense is the opposite of stout), but in the 1980s this development moved one step further. The spelling lite in brand names reflects the same process as the one which produced nite from night. History and Usage: This is a usage which has become especially common as a result of the prevailing fashion in the eighties for a low-fat, high-fibre diet and the consequent marketing of foodstuffs, drinks, and prepared meals specifically to take advantage of this. The first beer to carry the brand name Lite was launched in the late sixties by Meister Brau in the US; this became Miller Lite in the seventies and started to become very popular in the second half of that decade. Now, the word light (or lite) is often part of the name of a product, following a proper noun (as in the trade marks Meadow Lea Lite and Vitaquell Light margarines, Budweiser Lite beer, etc.)--a departure from the normal pattern of usage in English, where adjectives would normally precede the nouns they qualify, but consistent with a trend in the naming of products. In the US the word has also been applied to other consumables, such as cigarettes with a low tar content. Its idea of what makes a light beer light is that it contains 100 calories or less in a 12-oz serving. Marketing Week 29 Aug. 1986, p. 16 Polyunsaturated Meadow Lea Lite and Mrs McGregors Lite are reduced fat spreads with only half the fat and half the kilojoules of regular margarine and butter. Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 28 June 1989, p. 29